


Circuitry of the Heart

by ShadowWrites



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Android AU, F/F, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Lesbians, Slow Burn, Suppressed Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:00:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23624998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowWrites/pseuds/ShadowWrites
Summary: Lena Luthor may just be the smartest inventor to have ever lived. After all, it wasn’t every day that someone was able to make metal and wires come to life. For all her genius, though, there is one malfunction Lena can’t solve within herself:She’s falling in love with her own creation.(Commissioned by someone a VERY long time ago (2017), and just finished it now, hence why everything is set 3 years ago.)
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 3
Kudos: 105





	1. Chapter 1

_"...In other news, the National City Zoo was thrown into chaos earlier this afternoon when Kantu the Lion escaped from his exhibit during peak tourism hours," said the blonde news anchor on the television. “However, when authorities arrived on the scene, they were stunned to find Kantu already contained and that any victims of the attack had already been admitted to the nearby emergency wing at National General."_

__

"It was her!" Exclaimed an excitable young man as the station cut to an interview that had been recorded several hours earlier. "That woman that all the papers have been talking about! You should have seen the way she swooped in out of nowhere. She picked up that lion like a kitten and put him right back where he came from!"

__

_"It was unlike anything I've ever seen before," said the next interviewee, an older mother with her three children standing beside her as she spoke into the microphone. "My husband was one of the people who were standing right beside the exhibit when the lion escaped, he pushed himself in front of the kids the second we saw it jump over the fence. If that young lady hadn't gotten him to the hospital when she did, we... we probably wouldn't have ever seen him alive again." The woman had tears in her eyes and streaming down her face as she looked directly into the camera. "Whoever you are, whatever you are... thank you."_

Lena glanced up toward the television and smiled softly, reaching over to grab the remote with one hand and muting the sound as the nightly news transitioned into another story. The entire city was abuzz about the attack at the zoo and yet another appearance by Supergirl, the third one this week after an armed robbery that had taken place on 42nd Street on Monday and a fire on the fourteenth story of an office building on Wednesday.

Turning back toward the work in front of her, the curve of Lena’s mouth sloped into a frown. She prodded at the circuitry laid out in front of her a bit, holding her screwdriver between her lips as she rearranged a few stray wires and secured them back into their original positions. Nodding to herself in approval once everything was back in its proper place Lena set her screwdriver aside. She tucked a stray strand of dark hair behind her ear before grabbing the needle and thread beside her to mend the synthetic flesh that had been torn open hours ago.

“I take it Kantu isn’t too fond of flying?” She asked, and while the words were meant to be humorous they came out as a heavy sigh. Lena heard a soft giggle in reply regardless as she finished up her stitching job, flickering on the UV lamp beside her so that the false skin would heal itself faster and hopefully without any noticeable scarring. She had designed the technology herself years ago in the hopes of submitting her work anonymously to National City General: a synthetic tissue that would heal itself in the presence of sunlight. Lena had hoped to aid the victims of third degree burns or other such tragedy and provide a safer alternative to skin grafts.

Of course, that had all changed when Kara came into the picture.

“Yeah, you’d think he’d take a hint and try not to attack the only thing keeping him from falling a hundred feet to the ground,” the android herself smiled brightly at Lena when she looked up, her blue eyes sparkling. “But those bank robbers the other day tried to do the same thing, so I guess it’s just instinct.”

In response to Kara’s comment, Lena’s eyes flickered to the hero’s right leg. The injury had long since healed and vanished since Monday, but Lena could still remember the way Kara’s wiring had been damaged and sparking so violently from the gunshot wound one of the bank robbers had given her when she was flying them into custody. Lena bit her lip, turning her attention toward cleaning up her tools.

“You need to be more careful, Kara,” she said, “remember that.” Lena had dedicated years of her life to designing National City’s Supergirl and could say with absolute certainty that Kara was her magnum opus. The idea for the android had come to Lena in a dream. She had been celebrating her 21st birthday the same way she had celebrated her birthday for the last five years-alone. After knocking back more wine than Lane cared to admit, she had fallen asleep on her sofa and dreamt of a beautiful young woman with golden hair and eyes as blue as the summer sky. They didn’t say anything to each other in the dream, simply stared at one another, and the woman had given Lena the most gorgeous, genuine smile she had ever received and whispered a single name: Kara.

Since that night, Lena had been obsessed with creating Kara. Rather than simply give her research and advancements in the field of science and medicine to the city in bits and pieces, Lena used her backgrounds in biological and electrical engineering to compile all of her past work to design the body and artificial intelligence that would become National City’s greatest salvation.

“How can I forget when you’re always reminding me?” Kara teased, pulling her shirt sleeve back down once Lena had finished. She frowned when Lena didn’t respond, biting her lip in such a humanistic manner it was astonishing even to the woman who had created her. Kara stood and approached Lena, helping to tidy up the work space. “L…”

“Lena,” the inventor corrected Kara. The city may know her as “L”, the mysterious contact should Supergirl’s services ever be needed, but here in the safety of her home Lena wanted to be called by her own name. She knew that the anonymity was good, both for her safety and to ensure that the city could still trust its newest hero-after all, the name “Luthor” didn’t carry much wholesome credibility these days and would most likely invoke more fear in the hearts of the people than the hope Supergirl provided would be able to overcome. Kara gave a gentle, apologetic smile.

“Lena,” she began again. “I believe in you. I know that the world can be dangerous, but I also know that anytime I’m hurt, you’ll always be right there to fix me up again,” she said, moving her recently mended arm as if to emphasize the point. Lena’s eyes traced the stitches.

“I don’t want you getting hurt unless it’s absolutely necessary,” she insisted, and Kara sighed softly. “This is serious, Kara. I’m concerned as to what might happen to you if I were ever not around one day to ‘fix you up again’.”

“Alright, I’ll tell you what. I will promise to be more careful if you,” Kara crossed the space between them and reached forward to take Lena’s hands in her own, leading the other woman away from her workbench over to the sofa, “promise to take better care of yourself.”

“I need to finish cleaning- “

“I’ll make sure the rest of your tools are put back where they belong later. You’re too stressed, Lena, relax,” Kara said, gesturing for the other woman to sit down. After much deliberation, Lena sighed and complied, sinking down into the leather cushions. Kara grinned down at her creator, evidently very pleased that she had succeeded in her task.

“This is ridiculous, I have so many other things to do…” The inventor insisted. Kara laughed softly, walking around behind the other woman. A moment later, Lena could feel warm fingers laying across her shoulders.

“Having this much stress in your life at such a young age is going to make you go crazy! Sit back and let me help you. Please?” Lena tipped her head back curiously onto the cushions, looking back and up into the those pleading blue eyes. “For me? After all, I need you in the best shape in case I hurt myself again.”

This time, rather than allowing herself to be overwhelmed with stress at the idea of Kara being injured, Lena just shook her head and let out a breathy laugh. Kara was nothing if not persistent, and the inventor found that she was simply too exhausted to argue back with the other woman over this any longer. She squished herself further down into the sofa, humming softly at the pleasant feeling of the soft cushions around her. This wasn’t too terrible, actually. Maybe Kara was right, Lena really ought to be making more time for herself.

When Kara’s fingers began to move against the knots in Lena’s shoulders she let out a quiet moan of pleasure, tilting her neck instinctively forward to allow the other woman better access. It was times like these Lena was ever so thankful she had spent so many months fine-tuning Kara’s motor control skills. Right now she was receiving what was perhaps the nicest massage she had ever experienced. It was certainly better than any of those that her wicked mother had dragged her along to in one of the fancy, five-star spas as a teenager just to make it look to the outside world like she actually gave a damn about her adopted daughter.

“You’re very good at this,” Lena commented, eyes having slipped shut.

“Well, I learned from the best,” Kara said, and Lena could hear the smile in her voice without ever even having to hear it.

The silence that stretched between them after that was interrupted only every now and again by the soft noises of contentment Lena was unable to keep from escaping her lips. Perhaps Kara had a point, she really ought to be taking better care of herself. After all, she really was all Kara had in this world, and what would happen to the hero on National City if anything were to befall the inventor simply because she wasn’t taking opportunities to preserve her own well-being?

Lena allowed her mind to drift as she sunk further and further into relaxation under the careful ministrations of Kara’s kneading fingers. Even now she was drawing up blueprints in her mind for the next modification she could make to Supergirl’s suit, perhaps replace the fabric with something more flame retardant of her own creation. No, the key was to find some way to strengthen the durability of Kara’s skin first. After all, while it was in part a way to better protect her creation, Lena knew that in reality if Kara were to ever be injured in a fight and someone were to see the circuitry and wiring running underneath the surface of her flesh, the citizens of the city would never be able to trust Supergirl in the same way again.

Even in the year 2017 society had not yet evolved yet to the point of accepting someone different from themselves, which possibly put Kara at more of a risk than saving the city from criminals perhaps ever would. She was a sentient being, fully capable of almost the entire range of human emotion and with a higher developed thought processing power faster than any other person alive. Even still, Lena knew that the public, were they to ever discover that their savior was actually an android, would waste no time in tearing down the very thing that had done nothing but protect them.

But Lena refused to let that happen. It was why she kept herself anonymous, as well as Kara’s own identity by using the epithet of “Supergirl” whenever they were in public. She was not her brother. Lex was blinded by his ambition and nearly destroyed everything their family had created with his own selfish desires and irrational behavior. Lena would never allow herself to ever bring such dishonor or chaos upon Kara.

Kara didn’t seem to mind the idea herself too terribly. As a matter of fact, she had seemed to take quite a liking to developing her own sense of fashion. Lena had to wonder if that was owed to the android having some sense of identity that she had created herself rather than having been designed and built like everything else about her. Either way, it pleased the inventor to no end whenever Kara came bouncing into the room in a pretty pastel yellow dress, her curly hair halfway pinned up away from her face.

The glasses were perhaps Lena’s favorite, though. At first Lena had suggested them as a way to better hide the recognizable visage of Supergirl from the public. She would have expected perhaps a thin set of frames or something practical. Efficient, functional, necessary. So when Kara walked up to Lena babbling on excitedly about the pair of thick glasses with bold black edging around the entirety of the lenses, Lena had simply laughed fondly and commented that she believed they suited Kara perfectly. She had never seen the android smile so brightly.

Lena let out a sigh of contentment at the memory. She heard Kara’s amused tone of voice asking her a question.

“What are you thinking about?”

“You,” Lena replied. Maybe it was the way the light was casting shadows across the other woman’s face, but the inventor could have sworn she saw Kara actually blush. It wasn’t as though doing so were an impossibility. While Kara lacked any sort of circulatory system, the pigments that gave color to her skin were wired into her emotional responses, meaning her skin could flush with embarrassment.

“Oh,” Kara replied softly, and now she was the one who looked lost in thought. Lena chuckled quietly.

“What are you thinking about?”

“How pretty you are when you’re happy.” The reply was without hesitation, so ready on Kara’s tongue, which only seemed to add to the weight of its truth. Lena felt the hands on her shoulders pause, and she knew for certain that Kara was definitely blushing now. She raised an eyebrow in amusement, to stunned to really say much else.

“Oh?”

“I-I meant it’s just nice to see that you aren’t so on edge. Of course you look prettier when you aren’t so tense. Not that you don’t look pretty when you are stressed, either!” Kara continued to sink herself further and further into trouble with her words. Eventually she just hung her head in silence. Lena laughed lightly, pushing herself up to turn around. Kneeling on the seat, body facing the back of the sofa rather than the front, Lena took Kara’s hand in her own.

“Hey,” she prompted, causing the other woman to finally meet her eye. “It’s alright, Kara. Thank you,” Lena smiled. It was nice, after all, to have someone call her pretty. It wasn’t as if she had any other sort of support system, given the nature of her cruel and often sadistic surviving family members.

Something changed, then. The air between them shifted, sparking some sort of mutual emotion that Lena had never felt pass between the two of them anymore. She watched as Kara’s blue eyes shifted from shy and reserved to determined, empowered. Lena felt the corner of her mouth tug down in a frown, unsure as to what exactly Kara might be thinking about that might form such an expression. She opened her mouth to question the other woman on it, but suddenly her mouth wasn’t nearly as free now as it had been a moment ago.

Kara’s lips were soft against her own. Lena should have expected that, after all she had built this android entirely herself, but there was a sort of pleasantness at discovering just how supple and gentle they were with a kiss rather than seeing them detailed on countless blueprints and hastily-sketched designs. The kiss was delicate, almost feather-light, more curious and searching than demanding. There was a touch of delicate chastity within it as well, adding to the purity of the gesture.

It wasn’t tainted with lust, but it was just as charged with electricity all the same. Kara pulled away briefly, and Lena found herself leaning in after the other woman, as if trying to chase after such a wonderful sensation. The two stared at one another in surprise for several moments, both of them at a loss for words. They seemed to come to the same decision in that moment-if they couldn’t find the right way to express their thoughts vocally, then perhaps physically was the better option.

This time, rather than letting just Kara take the lead, Lena met her halfway. Their lips met once again, more passionately this time. Lena felt Kara’s steady hand brush along her cheek, fingers splaying out against her skin to cradle Lena’s face gently in her palm. It felt so warm against her face, and Lena brought her own hand up to circle around the back of Kara’s neck, anchoring their mouths together.

There was something just thrilling about this. It had been so long since Lena had kissed anyone. College, actually, might have been the last time. She had never felt quite right whenever locking lips with any of the young men her mother had tried to all but force on her in her teenage years, trying to use her disappointment of a daughter for as a leg up in the delicate social circles of the upper class. When she had gotten into university, Lena had finally been free to explore and take chances with whomever she pleased. It hadn’t exactly taken her long to discover she preferred having a female as company over men. There was just a softer element to them that no male could replicate. The inventor had a few flings back in her younger days, but after graduating she had been so focused on her research-and later, Kara-that there just hadn’t been time for her to find any sort of relationship. Besides, it wasn’t fair to drag someone into a relationship when she had so much emotional baggage of her own to sort through.

With Kara, though, none of that would matter. Kara would accept Lena no matter what issues she might have, no matter how dedicated to her work she was. After all, it wasn’t as if the android had any sort of frame of reference on this sort of relationship anyway, she would have no idea what she was potentially missing out on. Not to mention that Lena had created Kara from nothing and was the one and only person that the android had in this world. So really, it was almost as if they were destined to be together-

What was she thinking? What was Lena thinking, what was she doing? This wasn’t fair, or even morally sound. Lena pulled abruptly out of the kiss, surprising the other woman. Kara opened her eyes, brow furrowing delicately in concern. From here Lena could see the small scar above her left eye where the inventor had accidentally nicked the skin with a screwdriver during the building process. For some reason, it had never fully healed. Not that Lena minded, it was just another aspect of Kara that made her so incredibly human even though she was anything but that.

“Lena?” Kara asked, confusion creeping into her tone. “Did I do something wrong?”

“N-no,” Lena replied shakily, putting up her hands when Kara reached out to touch her again. She inhaled a shuddering breath and attempted to put on a smile for the other woman. “No, Kara, you didn’t do anything wrong. It was my fault, I… we should have never done that.”

“But I don’t understand- “

“I don’t expect you to,” Lena said shortly, wrapping her arms around herself as she backed up off of the couch. “You’ll have to trust me on this Kara.”

“…O-okay,” Kara said, still frowning. It was clear that she was disappointed, but Lena didn’t stick around for any longer to observe. She fled the room as quickly as reasonably possible, all but running out of there as she made her way to the bedroom.

Once she was inside and the door was shut and locked behind her, Lena turned around and leaned her back against it, covering her face with her hands. It wasn’t long before her body was wracked with silent sobs and she slid down to the floor, arms curled around the knees pulled up to her chest.

Selfish. How could she be so selfish? It wasn’t right to put herself on Kara like that, especially when Kara had never experienced this sort of interaction before. Supergirl was meant to be a hero for this city, not some slave to pick up the broken pieces of Lena’s life or fill the empty void in her heart. Kara was her creation; she would never refuse Lena. Even despite the independence level of the artificial intelligence system inside her, Kara couldn’t refuse the woman who had built her from nothing.

This was a mess, without a doubt. Lena reached up and wiped at the tears on her cheeks, brushing them away in the same fashion she had learned to as a little girl growing up in the Luthor household. She would just pretend that tonight never happened. Things would go back to normal, she would continue to be the contact for whenever Supergirl was needed around National City, and that was all. There would be no more of this… Well, whatever this tonight had been. If not for herself, then it would be for Supergirl. Even if Lena was condemned to a hellish existence, she would be damned if she let herself drag Kara down with her.


	2. Chapter 2

They never spoke about what had happened. Kara went on as though nothing had happened, and Lena was exceptionally grateful that they could pretend as though nothing had ever happened. Part of Lena felt guilty, she understood that the android must be confused about all that had transpired between them, but for now avoidance was the best tactic. Lena didn’t have the mental capacity to work through any of this at the moment, especially not after the events of last week and the panic that was sweeping through National City as a result.

No one had any sort of explanation for the ships that had appeared in the sky one day. Kara had taken to the sky multiple times in an effort of reconnaissance, but each time she returned with information that raised more questions than it answered. Lena was at the end of her rope. She hadn’t slept in days, was barely eating, and she couldn’t even remember the last time that she saw the sun.

Kara was concerned, Lena could tell. She did little things like make her lunch and dinner, ran her a bath at the end of the evenings, and even made up the sofa like a bed for whenever Lena inevitably passed out on the cushions. Kara’s compassion only served to worsen Lena’s guilt, though the inventor did have to admit that she had never dreamed an android would be able to make chicken parmesan taste quite so good.

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Lena sighed as her blonde companion set a plate of pasta before her. Kara sat down beside Lena, raising an eyebrow expectantly, her blue eyes flickering between the plate of food and Lena’s stomach. Lena sighed, reaching for the fork and winding a few noodles around the prongs before popping it into her mouth. Kara gave her a bright smile, clearly pleased that she had gotten at least two meals into her creator that day. Her face grew serious as Lena’s shoulders sagged under the stress of the situation.

“Maybe they come in peace?” Kara suggested. “They haven’t launched any sort of attack on the city. That’s a good thing, right?”

“They haven’t initiated any sort of communication yet,” Lena replied, swallowing down another mouthful of pasta and sauce. She speared a piece of chicken with her fork and popped it in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. When she swallowed, Lena continued. “Usually by now there should have been some attempt at hailing our city leaders, or anyone, but there’s been radio silence. The media is beginning to work itself up into a frenzy…”

“And the citizens are following suit,” Kara finished. Lena gave a somber nod, and both women sat in silence for a while. The blonde woman stood abruptly, beginning to pace back and forth in such a human manner as her processing systems scrambled to think of some sort of solution to this predicament.

“Okay, well,” Kara began, capturing Lena’s attention, “maybe I should fly up there again and have another look around. I might notice something that I missed before!”

“Kara, you’ve been flying up to investigate that ship at least seven times every day this week,” the inventor sighed. “I doubt that staring at it any longer is going to serve any other purpose than making us angry.”

“Oh,” Kara replied. Lena felt bad for shooting down the idea, but if she sent Supergirl to the sky again only to have the blonde come back empty handed once again she was going to break something-most likely the television.

The local news was on twenty-four hours a day on most of the major stations, cameras alternating between focusing on the large lump of black mass hovering menacingly in the sky and reporters giving updates on the status of down town. It was a warzone there. People were so taken with fear of the unknown that they were tearing National City apart. Many people had evacuated, gone to stay with family in the country or hotels out in the suburbs. Those who had remained had resorted to looting, armed theft, mugging, vandalism, and worse. The authorities were outnumbered, and emergency response times were at least an hour’s wait, if not longer. Many local gangs had taken over in place of the police. Whomever hadn’t left the city remained locked in their homes.

It drove Lena insane to know that there was nothing she could do to stop this. There was no answer here, no solution. Just problem after problem stacked atop one another in a tower that was bound to come toppling over any day now, crushing them all. Lena didn’t have a good feeling about this at all.

She fell asleep on the couch again that night. In the morning, the inventor found her dishes had been cleared away and there was a blanket laid over her form. Glancing around, Lena’s eyes landed on Kara, who was curled up peacefully on the loveseat adjacent to the sofa. She smiled softly at her android. Kara truly was beautiful in every sense of the word. The way the sunlight peaked through the window and highlighted her features allowed Lena to become lost in her fascination with her own creation for a short while. For a few perfect moments, there was no ship in the sky. There was no city depending solely on her for answers to questions she herself couldn’t decipher. There was no silent pining for something she wanted but knew she couldn’t have. There was just Kara.

Lena pushed herself up from the couch. She had risen early that morning, so she decided a shower might be good to clear her head. Lena remained in the bathroom for an hour, just standing there and letting the warm water run over her hair and shoulders, enjoying something as simple as feeling clean.

When she emerged, Kara was freshly dressed and just finishing putting away the blankets from the previous evening. She grinned at Lena in welcome.

“Good morning!” She practically sang, dancing over to the kitchen counter to retrieve a mug of steaming hot coffee. Lena took a sip and sighed, letting the liquid warm her insides. For the first time in days she felt like an actual human being once again. As the inventor began to make her way over to her work once again, Kara spoke up again.

“Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to go for a walk this morning instead?” She asked. Lena turned, tilting her head curiously. Normally she might have admonished the android for such a strange suggestion. The still had so much work to do! But those sky blue eyes sparkled with such hope and longing…

Which was exactly how Lena found herself walking along the riverfront with Kara at nine-thirty in the morning on a day which they were supposed to dedicate to figuring out what was hanging quite literally over all their heads. Lena wasn’t concerned about the chaos of downtown reaching them here in the South District, most of it was concentrated at the city center. Looking up toward the sky, Lena could see the outline of the spaceship still looming over the city. She sighed softly, causing Kara to look over in concern.

“Hey,” Kara prompted with a smile, bumping her shoulder playfully against Lena’s, “it’s okay. You’re going to go crazy if you keep thinking about the ship all the time. Let’s just relax for a little while,” she said. Kara gave a little laugh. “There’s no point in leaving your apartment if you’re going to stress about the same things out here as you do in there.”

The inventor laughed as well, a sense of freedom bubbling up within her along with the sound. It felt good to laugh, felt like she hadn’t had that luxury in years. Lena nodded and fell silent, just walking along with Kara for a long time. Something was wrong, though, Lena could tell. Kara was biting her lip and staring at the ground now, which was always a tell for when the android was in deep thought over something.

“What’s the matter?” Lena asked. It was her turn now to bump Kara’s shoulder. “You can’t give advice that you can’t keep, you know.”

“I know,” Kara replied, putting on a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. Something really was bothering her, and Lena was curious as to what it could possibly be. She was silent for a long time, still staring at the ground before opening her mouth again. “It’s about the kiss-oh, my…”

Lena felt her chest tighten when she first heard Kara begin to mention the topic they had been successfully skirting around for weeks now. She didn’t have long to worry, not when Kara’s gaze shifted over Lena’s shoulder and her jaw practically dropped. Lena spun around to face the city, curious as to what Kara was looking at. When she glanced up at the sky, her stomach plummeted in dread.

The spaceship had opened. More importantly, however, were the dozens of smaller flight crafts currently pouring out of its gaping maw, zipping in between the buildings and descending on the streets of National City. The screams could be heard even from miles away. There was a rush of air and Lena stepped back, noticing that Kara had already taken to the sky. The android looked back at Lena and hesitated, dropping quickly back to the ground beside her.

“What are you doing?!” Lena cried. “You have to go help the city!”

“I need to get you to safety first!”

“Kara, I’m not what’s important right now! There are millions of lives in National City, I’m just one person-“

“I’m not leaving until you’re safe, Lena,” Supergirl continued to argue. The inventor leveled the other woman with a glare. “You’re too important.”

“Not more important than all of the other lives in the-Kara!”

One of the ships that had broken off from the attack formation had begun flying toward the waterfront, undoubtedly looking for stragglers outside the limits of the city center. The two women were trapped, there was nowhere to hide out here in the open, especially not with the river at their backs. Supergirl swept Lena’s legs out from under her and caught the inventor in her arms, clearly intent to fly Lena back to her apartment. They got all of ten feet in the air when the flight craft fired some sort of beam at the two of them, just missing Kara’s left shoulder. It was enough to startle the blonde, however, which sent both her and Lena crashing back toward the ground.

Lena clutched her wrist and groaned. A sprain, nothing more, but it wasn’t as if that landing had exactly tickled. She shot to her feet and hurried to Kara’s side. Her synthetic skin was already closing up the cuts and scrapes Supergirl had acquired from the impact. This sort of combat was too dangerous to have out here in the open. With nothing to shield themselves against the blasts from their opponent, they were like sitting ducks.

“Kara!” Lena said. The android had been right, they needed to get somewhere safe. Somewhere that Kara could change into her proper suit and then come back, take the fight to a place with less wide-open space. “Kara?” Lena asked, concerned with the way the blonde was looking at her.

Kara reached out and brushed her thumb gently across Lena’s cheek. Lena winced at the way the touch stung, glancing down to see Kara’s thumb come away red. The inventor must have gashed her face on a rock when she hit the ground. Still, she didn’t feel lightheaded, now wasn’t the time to be concerned with that. Lena could patch that up later.

Supergirl didn’t seem to share that attitude, however. She stared at the blood on her fingers in horror before directing her attention upward again. Kara glared at the attack ship in the sky, carefully tracing its flight pattern as the craft came around for a second wave of attack. Determination flashed in those bright blue eyes.

“Kara…” Lena warned. “Kara, no, we have to get out of here first. We can come back! Kara!”

But Lena was yelling at air. Kara had already taken to the sky, hot in pursuit of the flight craft that had nearly gunned them down. Lena took off running after them, quickly scrambling back several steps when the ship up above began to fire more energy blasts at her. Supergirl intercepted the attacker and knocked the pilot clean off his vehicle, sending the machine into a nosedive. It landed in the river and exploded in a spray of shrapnel, raining down metal into the waterways.

Lena put a hand over her heart, thankful that the battle was over so quickly. She turned toward the city again only to find three more ships headed for them. Of course, the explosion must have drawn attention from the wave of extraterrestrials attacking the city. Oh, they were most definitely in over their heads now.


	3. Chapter 3

“Supergirl, stop!” Lena commanded as Kara once more began to advance on the approaching threat. At last, Lena’s words seemed to get through to Kara as the android came to a halt in the middle of the air. Kara turned to look over her shoulder at the woman on the ground. “Even you can’t take on three of those things at once. We need to hide.” Then, once the threat was gone, Lena could get Kara back to the city center and let Supergirl help the victims of the attack. 

“But I can-“

“I don’t care what you can do, Kara, I care about what you need to do. Right now, you need to help save the people of National City. We don’t have the time to sit around and let you take on a suicide mission like this, do you understand?” Lena demanded, keeping an eye on the enemies drawing ever nearer. Too much longer now and Kara and Lena would be spotted. Lena reached up and grabbed Kara’s hand, barely able to reach it from where Kara was hovering a few feet above the ground. “National City needs you to keep yourself safe, and so do I,” Lena added. Kara’s features softened.

“Okay,” was Kara’s reply. At last, she descended fully to the ground. She never released Lena’s hand. “What’s the plan, then?”

“Like I said, we need to hide,” Lena said, looking around. “There,” she stated, pointing to a large bush by the riverside. When Kara nodded, the two took off for the shrub. 

It was by no means comfortable, twigs and branches pressing and scratching at their faces as they squeezed between the leaves, but it would do. Thank goodness the city had decided to put in these large decorative hedges along the water a few years ago. After a few seconds, the sounds of alien aircraft could he heard whizzing by overhead. Lena pressed a finger to her lips to signal quiet, and Kara nodded silently in reply. The buzzing noise of the aircraft faded into nothing, but Lena still waited a minute or two longer to be safe. Cautiously, she began to exit the bush, relieved to see that the waterfront was once again empty, save for herself and Kara. 

“We need to get back to the city, quickly,” Lena said. 

“Leave that part to me,” Kara said proudly, holding out her arms expectantly. “Well? What are you waiting for, come on! I won’t drop you.”

“Oh. Oh, no, that’s okay, I don’t.... I can walk,” Lena said, shaking her head and taking a step back. Kara rolled her eyes. 

“You’re going to walk home in the middle of an alien invasion? Yeah, okay. Stop being silly, I can fly us back in no time.”

“I like to keep my feet on the ground, where they belong,” Lena insisted. 

“You’ve flown in an airplane a hundred times.”

“That’s different.”

“Different how?”

“Airplanes have floors, seats, seatbelts and oxygen masks. You have two arms and an unhealthy amount of confidence,” Lena countered, her breath coming a little shorter and her words more clipped. Kara frowned, lowering her arms. 

“Lena, are you... you’re not afraid of me, are you?”

“What? No, Kara, don’t be ridiculous, I would never be afraid of you,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest with a huff. “I am, however, terrified of the several hundred foot drop between you and the ground whenever you take off into the air.”

“Okay,” Kara said, nodding along deceptively. “But you trust me, don’t you?” She asked. Lena stiffened at the question. “I won’t drop you, Lena.”

“People make all sorts of promises, Kara, that doesn’t mean they can keep them all.”

“Good thing I’m not people,” Kara said, with no small amount of bitterness.

“Ha!” Lena scoffed, looking at Kara incredulously. Strangely enough, the android looked a little wounded now. “What does that mean?”

“It means I’m not a human being.”

“Yes, but I don’t know why you’re making it into a big deal right this very second. I know you aren’t a human.”

“And I know you know.”

“Just stop!” Lena snapped. “I don’t know why you’re being so testy, but there is a full-scale extraterrestrial attack on our city happening right now. You need to put whatever strange attitude Kara has right now aside and focus on being Supergirl,” Lena concluded. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, pretending not to notice the mild glare she was receiving from Kara. “Now, you are needed in the city. I refuse to fly there. So what we can do is-“

“Got it,” Kara cut her off. Lena felt something smack against her like a pile of bricks, followed by wind rushing through her hair and past her ears. When she opened her eyes again, the ground was far, far away from where it should be. 

“Kara!” She shouted, locking onto the android’s arm with her fingers in a death grip. Lena felt sick. There was a legitimate chance she would vomit from a hundred feet in the air. “Kara, what are you doing?” She hissed.

“You said you refused to fly. Good thing I’m the one doing the flying,” Kara said, eyes focused on the city ahead. Lena tried to do the same, tried to focus on something other than the ground rushing past them below. It didn’t help. Instead, she closed her eyes. A few seconds of silence passed, with Lena repeating a mantra over and over in her mind. Don’t throw up, don’t throw up, don’t throw up.

“I want to talk about it,” Kara said over the howl of the wind. Her voice carried over it so clearly without having to shout. Lena was not so lucky.

“About what? Never mind! I don’t think I want to talk about anything with you!”

“The kiss,” Kara continued, ignoring the second half of Lena’s response. Kara’s words made Lena’s eyes fly open in surprise. That was a mistake, however, and she quickly screwed them shut again.

“Kara....” Lena began in exasperation.

“No, Lena. I said I wanted to talk about it,” Kara said. “You know it really hurt me when you ran away like you did a few weeks ago. Believe it or not, I actually do have feelings, you made sure of that personally. So I don’t know why you would do that just to try to go out of your way to make me feel so horrible later on,” Kara said. 

Her words shocked Lena a bit. Of course Lena knew that Kara had emotions. After all, it was an incredibly painstaking process: training an artificial intelligence to be so unique and responsive it could be called damn near completely sentient. Lena could never forget that. She had poured hundreds and thousands of hours into honing Kara’s cognitive abilities, trying to squeeze life from what was once nothing more than some metal and a series of binary code-and succeeding. Lena had created an android that could experience genuine happiness and sadness, as well as things like empathy and regret. Kara could feel a limitless spectrum of emotion, just like humans: glee, sorrow, anger, excitement, ecstasy....

Rejection.

“If you didn’t like me kissing you, then that’s fine. I would have been disappointed, but I would have still been okay. Maybe a little confused, because you seemed to like it, too, but if it isn’t what you want then I can’t hold that against you. I just wish you would have told me instead of hiding away and then pretending it never happened,” Kara said. 

“It’s more complicated than that,” Lena said softly, forgetting that the wind would carry away her voice. However, Kara’s enhanced hearing made it so that she understood Lena perfectly fine. 

“You could have explained it.”

“No, Kara, I don’t think I could have.”

“You could have at least tried.” 

Touché. Silence fell over them once again. Lena finally worked up the courage to say something else when she felt the air began to slow. Opening her eyes, she saw they were back at her apartment building now. They were at the rooftop entrance, naturally, as there was too much chaos in the streets to enter from below. Once they landed, Kara released Lena slowly, making sure she didn’t fall over. Actually, by the end of the ride, it wasn’t so bad. Granted, Lena’s eyes had still been closed, but she hadn’t felt as nauseous as she had at the beginning. 

“I’m sorry, Kara,” Lena said as the android began to walk away, clearly determined to hurry into the building and find her costume to change into. Lena knew they wasted enough time, so she would keep this brief, but it needed to be said. “I didn’t know you felt that way. I never wanted to hurt you. I was trying to do the exact opposite, I thought that by allowing myself to be with you in any manner other than professional, I was hurting you more,” she said. “I’m afraid that being with you isn’t healthy. I don’t want you to be forced into something just because I say that I want it. That isn’t fair to you-“ Lena was cut off by a pair of soft lips gently pressing against her own. The sensation was short, only a second or two at most, but it startled her enough to leave her speechless.

“You can’t force something on to me when I decided I wanted it a very long time ago,” Kara said, and she smiled. Goodness, that smile. It was like the sun itself. 

Lena remained at a loss for words as she watched Kara disappear inside the building, emerging a heartbeat later in a stunning blur of deep blue and red and taking off toward the epicenter of the chaos below. For a second, Lena was worried, but that stress quickly disappeared. 

“She’ll be fine,” Lena said to herself. She reached up to touch her lips, tracing the place where Kara’s had touched just a moment ago. “She’ll be... super.”

“Lena Luthor?”

Lena turned around at the sound of her name to find that what she had previously assumed was an empty rooftop was anything but. Apparently someone had come up here to escape the chaos from down below. At least, that’s the only reason Lena could think of as to how or why this person had gotten up here. She frowned at the camera in the stranger’s hands. It looked like a very nice model, almost professional. The man seemed almost familiar somehow, had she met him before? He stepped forward and stretched out his hand for her to shake.

“James Olson, photographer for CatCo Worldwide Media,” James introduced himself. Right, he had shown up at a lot of various press conferences for the family company throughout the years. “Uh, hey, while I’ve got you here, can I ask you a question?”

“Mr. Olson, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but where is an actual alien invasion happening right now in our city, this is hardly the time for an interview,” Lena said with a scowl. Honestly, this man had some nerve!

“Yeah, sure, of course,” he said. “But it’s just one question, real fast. Here, look at these pictures too, right here,” he said, and Lena rolled her eyes as she approached. When she looked at the LED screen, though, it felt like all the air was knocked out of her at once. She stared as Jimmy cycled through a number of photos. One was of her watching Supergirl take off into the sky. The next was of Lena kissing a blonde woman who was clearly Kara, although thankfully her back was turned and her face was obscured from view. However, the most devastating image was the award-winning action-shot that had been taken a few seconds before the last one. It displayed Kara and Lena landing on the rooftop, both their faces clear as day for the camera, their identities a secret that the whole world now shared. 

“I was just wondering if you could tell me how long you’ve been in a relationship with Supergirl?”


	4. Chapter 4

“Good morning, sleepy head.”

Lena groaned softly as she felt someone begin to rouse her from sleep. Grabbing a pillow, she put it over her head stubbornly, as if trying to hide from the day. In response, she received a soft giggle.

“Hey! That’s not fair,” Kara laughed, gently moving the pillow out of the way. Now it was Lena’s turn to laugh, and at long last she opened her eyes. The sight that greeted her was radiant. Messy blonde hair spilling all around pale shoulders and cheeks, blue eyes bright as the sky and sparkling with amusement.

“You slept really late today,” Kara said. “If we don’t get up now, you’ll miss the press conference.”

“Mm, but I like it here so much more,” Lena said, rolling over and wrapping her arms around Kara. Kara laughed again as Lena tried to snuggle into her and go back to sleep.

“Okay, well, all of this will be here waiting for you when you get back,” Kara said. Lena groaned again, but this time she actually started to get up. 

Lena wasn’t looking forward to the press conference at all, but it really couldn’t be put off any longer. Almost two months had passed since the alien invasion. While Supergirl had been able to stop the invaders, the damage to National City had been intense. The first month of news coverage had been dedicated almost entirely to the invasion, but once the madness had died down the public quickly latched on to the next biggest story: Lena Luthor’s apparent relationship with Supergirl. Granted, they hadn’t been in an actual relationship at that point, not yet, but it had quickly developed into one after their rooftop kiss. 

But Lena and Kara hadn’t had a chance to explore their newfound relationship in peace with the press constantly hounding after the two of them the moment they stepped foot in public. Everywhere Lena went she was confronted with someone accosting her with the same question: “are you and Supergirl in a relationship?” It was invasive, annoying, and at this point it was now keeping Lena and Kara trapped in the apartment. There were only so many games of Scrabble they could play and Netflix movies they could watch before they went crazy. Lena needed to address this issue head on. 

—

Kara had insisted on going along with her, but had compromised on staying in the car once they arrived. It would only make the press go wilder if the two were seen arriving together. 

On her way to the conference, Lena had been going over and over her talking points in her head. Thankfully, Olson had decided against publishing the photo that showed Kara’s face. Evidently he had enough of a heart to know that Supergirl had done so much to protect the city, the least he could do in return was protect her by keeping her identity a secret. 

The photos of Supergirl and Kara kissing, however, were another matter. The best thing to do would be to lie. She and Kara could carry on their relationship in secret from the public. Granted, they could never really go out anywhere together again, and they’d have to be extremely careful even within their own home, seeing as Lena constantly had people over for business meetings. They were essentially signing up for a life of secrets and misery.

This was best, right?

“You’re going to do great,” Kara said, snapping Lena out of her train of thought. Looking out the window, she noticed that they had arrived. Kara gave Lena’s hand a soft squeeze. “Just remember, I’m right out here,” she said. Lena nodded, giving the android a half-hearted smile in return, then exited the vehicle.

The conference hall was bustling with people. Reporters from every news outlet in the city were here, and even some from outside as well. Lena took a deep breath. Okay, she could do this.

The press immediately fell silent when Lena walked out on stage. She noticed there were several microphones mounted to the podium once she arrived. It didn’t help to calm her nerves. Taking another deep breath, she began.

“Good afternoon,” Lena said. “I won’t waste time beating around the bush, I know why you’re all here.” That got a chuckle out of the crowd, at least. “So, I’ll just get right to it. The question on everyone’s mind: ‘is Lena Luthor dating Supergirl?’ My answer,” she said, pausing to look out over the crowd. Lena glanced down for a second at her note cards. A lifetime of hiding away, never being able to experience all that life had to offer, always feeling alone. Lena was used to that.

Kara, however, deserved more. 

“My answer is yes. Yes, I am dating Supergirl.”

The crowd exploded with questions. Lena blinked in surprise, but it wasn’t really that shocking of a response. Still, it gave Lena pause. Was this a mistake? Glancing back to the wings of the stage, she saw a pair of very excited blue eyes looking right back at her, and all of the fears washed away. Lena smiled, then looked back at the crowd. 

“I’ll now be taking questions.”


End file.
